Candy isn’t all that is hidden in Easter baskets

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Shoppers examine Easter baskets at a Wal-Mart store in the Porter Ranch area of Los Angeles Thursday, April 9, 2009. March retail sales showed encouraging signs that consumers are no longer cutting their spending, a key to finding a bottom to the recession. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said U.S. same-store sales rose 1.4 percent in March as consumers continued to hunt for bargains, but the results missed Wall Street expectations, partly because of a shift in the Easter holiday and a stronger dollar. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

OAKLAND — Peeps, those fuzzy little marshmallow bunnies and chicks, have been planted in the Easter baskets of millions of Americans since they first made an appearance on shelves more than 50 years ago.

All the Peeps critters made in one year could circle around the Earth twice, according to the Web site of Just Born Inc., the candymaker. But, like much of the other vibrant, candy-coated goodies gobbled up during the holidays, Peeps contain synthetic dyes that have come under scrutiny by food safety advocates for causing behavioral and other problems in children and recently prompted a ban in Britain.

“There’s nothing healthy in Peeps. It doesn’t matter what color,” said Mary Jane Mona, who was shopping Saturday in Oakland for the pink and yellow marshmallow treats for the Easter baskets of children in her family — a tradition that goes back to her youth. Mona said she was not familiar with the controversy over food dye additives the candies contain.

In recent years, Peeps have become more of a cultural icon than a tasty treat. But jelly beans, pastel candy-coated chocolate eggs and candy-decorated chocolates, as well as a vast array of candies, contain the largely petroleum-based dyes that have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Those are FD&C Blue No. 1 and No. 2; Green No. 3; Red No. 3 and No. 40; Yellow No. 5 and No. 6.

The FDA, however, requires that their use be printed on their packaging.

The dyes now being used have “passed the test,” but not everywhere and not in everybody’s mind, said Steve Ettlinger, author of “Twinkie, Deconstructed.” The irony, he added, is that some dyes previously used have since been banned. “So that casts a little bit of shadow over the ones still here.”

Concerns about their safety prompted Britain in 2007 to call for a ban on six food dyes commonly included in U.S. foods, according to the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, a think tank based in Minnesota that pursues food and health safety issues. The move by Britain’s Food Standards Agency was based on several studies and trials in the country that raised concerns about artificial food colorings.

But the European Union recently rejected a ban in all of its member countries, saying that analyses were too broad to draw any solid conclusions about the safety of the ingredients.

Nevertheless, some global companies decided to get a jump on the potential British ban and nixed the synthetic coloring, but only in products sold on British shelves. They are still contained in widely sold products in the United States.

“Based on (the EU’s) findings, there is no need for consumers to alter their purchasing and eating habits and they and their children can safely enjoy food products containing these food colors,” said Robert Brackett, the Grocery Manufacturers of America chief science officer in a 2008 public statement.

One of those dyes, FD&C Yellow No. 5 — or “Tartrazine” — gives Peeps, beverages, desert powders, candy, ice cream and custards their sunny glow. But the dye also was associated in studies with hyperactivity, eczema, hives, asthma, irritability and other side effects, according to a report by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy.

The larger issue is the ability to know what packaged, processed foods contain, Ettlinger said. For example, many of the food dyes now being used are made with chemicals that come from Chinese petroleum, he said. “It’s a very long food chain.”

Concerns about ingredients are often dismissed because they have been in use so long, Ettlinger said.

The food industry also is a multibillion-dollar, powerful industry that traditionally favors loose regulations, said Robyn O’Brien, author of an upcoming book, “The Unhealthy Truth.” She recommended introducing small changes to people’s diet that reduces the overall load that comes with processed, packaged foods.

Otto Warmbier was arrested in January 2016 at the end of a brief tourist visit to North Korea. He had been medically evacuated and was being treated at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center when he died at age 22.